Derisive diatribes about the state of the nation, nation states and swerving leftward

2 December 2012

One set of facts U.S. politicians ignore

No amount of dinkering will fix the U.S. system as long as politicians aren't willing to take on the vested interests--the crooks who fleece all of us who must use the health system. The only way the system will work is if we have fixed prices for services. This has been the solution everywhere else in the world and it works.

2 comments:

The core issue is that health care is different from any other commodity tradeable on a market. If you don't get the health care you need when you need it, you *die*. Whereas if you don't get the pizza you want when you want it, you shrug and eat more beans and rice until you can get enough income to afford that pizza, but you don't die.

So the health care industry can literally say, "your money or your life", just like a Central Park mugger, and does so. And I haven't noticed anybody setting up a market for Central Park muggings. That'd be just silly. Just as silly as a market for life-critical healthcare procedures such as coronary bypass and angiograms.